Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fred Studer
http://paceproductivity.com/files/How_Sales_Reps_Spend_Their_Time.pdf
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page 4
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BUSINESSES NEED TO
LET SALESPEOPLE SELL
Two key dynamics influence the
productivity of todays sales teams:
Companies hire salespeople to drive revenue, but it turns out that the majority of sales
reps spend very little of their time actually doing the jobs they were hired to do. According
to Pace Productivity, just 22% of a typical sales reps week is focused on selling.1
Lets face itreps cant close if theyre hamstrung by inefficient processes, left out of the
conversation initiated by marketing, or simply distracted by time-sucking administrative
tasks.
Whats more, considering that sales reps are often not looped in until buyers are two-thirds
of the way though the decision-making process, sales productivity matters now more than
ever. In other words, salespeople need to free up as much of their time as possible to focus
on selling.
Tiffani Bova
VP and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner
So how can organizations set their sales teams up to succeed? Give them the tools, guidance and support they need to do what they do best: sell. In this eBook , well explore ways
to do just that, with a focus on the trends shaping todays buyingand sellingprocess:
Buyer 2.0: The way people buy has changed
How sales reps can transform from solution providers to trusted advisors
The role of content and conversations in todays buying and selling process
Misc.
Why and how sales reps need to tap into data for smarter selling
Lunch Breaks
The tools and technology that help sales reps get more done faster and better
4%
6%
Planning
10%
Travel
13%
Selling
22%
12%
Admin
10%
Service
http://paceproductivity.com/files/How_Sales_Reps_Spend_Their_Time.pdf
Order
Processing
Buyer 2.0
http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/bid/91415/Is-57-Your-Buyer-s-Number
http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/70-of-buying-process-completed-without-sales-invovlement/
Buyer 2.0
http://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/prospecting-tool/cold-calling-tips.html
http://www.gmigroup.be/cms/uploads/Presentaties/Klantendag%202013/GMI%20Dynamics%20CRM%202.pdf
Get social
OR GO HOME
At the end of the day, the fundamentals of selling havent changed: what makes a great
sales rep is the ability to establish and nurture relationships and build trust. In todays world,
sales pros can tap into social as a tool that extends those natural abilities, and theyd better
do so sooner than later. Reps ignoring social as a source of their next opportunities will find
themselves left out of every deal.
Theres no doubt about it: social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are incredibly valuable tools for making connections and nurturing business relationships, but its
not that easy. Sales reps need a way to tame the firehose, so to speak. They need tools that
help them separate true social buying signals and important moments from social noise
(more about those tools later in this eBook). Otherwise, they end up wasting valuable time,
time they could be spending selling.
Despite these challenges, now that buyers are moving along the path to purchase without
involving sales, its more important than ever for reps to pay attention to these channels.
Remember, by the time buyers reach out, theyve downloaded competitors eBooks, read
online reviews, and may have even asked members of a LinkedIn group for advice on the
products or services theyre considering.
When a seller cant or doesnt engage early with the right people, more often than not,
they have lost the deal before they even started. Ryan Blakely, Dynamics Business
Development Manager, Microsoft
Whats a sales rep to do? How can organizations get a foot in the door, so to speak, without
spending countless hours on social?
http://www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/8256/RB-social-selling-intelligence.aspx
Get social
OR GO HOME (CONTD)
Become an expert in your industry
According to Ryan Blakely, Dynamics Business Development Manager at Microsoft, the
key to successfully engaging buyer 2.0 is the following: deliver a steady flow of expertise,
insights, and relevant content that nurtures, teaches and influences throughout the buyers
journey. When done well, buyers see the sales rep as a partner and valuable asset to longterm success.
The best reps establish thought leadership on social channels to become the trusted expert
buyers seek out. As Colleen Francis of Engage Selling Solutions explains, Today, no one
buys from salespeoplethey only buy from experts. And buyers are actively searching for
thought leaders and experts daily. Kendra Lee, author of Selling Against the Goal: How
Corporate Sales Professionals Generate the Leads they Need, continues by saying To
distinguish themselves from the competition, sales reps need to inspire trust in prospects.
10
Get social
OR GO HOME (CONTD)
Use digital signals to jump-start interactions
Effective sales reps monitor and engage with prospective buyers in social channels. Doing
so lets them pick up on signals that give them a reason to reach out or jump into a conversation. In other words, its a foot in the door early in the buying cycle. The trigger could be
something personal such as a key contact receiving a promotion or celebrating a birthday.
It could also be something indicating when a contact is primed for purchase, such as her
company receiving funding or a key executive spearheading a new initiative.
To support their reps, a growing number of marketing and sales leaders are offering their
sales team listening tools, content libraries, and social publishing tools. These make it easy
to stay top of mind and provide thought leadership, as well as real-world advice that actually helps their prospects do their jobs better. Increasingly these marketing and sales leaders
are also partnering to provide social insights on leads, contacts, and accounts, freeing sales
teams to focus more on what matters rather than noodling with their latest tweet.
Always be connecting
Jill Rowley, an incredible social selling thought leader (see page 37 for her complete interview), called us out on the title of this eBook. She believes that when it comes to social
selling, its not Always be Closingits Always Be Connecting. As she says, The Modern
Sales Professional uses social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter to find, listen, relate, connect, engage and amplify her buyer, the buying committee and their sphere of influence.
We could not agree more with this. While it may not be possible or even smart to connect
with everyone in a company on social channels, connecting socially should be a key focus
for any organizations top accounts. Its important to remember not to connect just for
connectings sake. This isnt the equivalent of building up a Rolodexits about building
relationships.
TIP: Get your entire company to follow your top ten prospects on Twitter and LinkedIn.
These potential buyers will notice.
11
Get social
OR GO HOME (CONTD)
The smartest reps are extremely targeted in who they reach out to (another tip from Jill
Rowley). They also take the time to research that person to give context as to why they
want to connect. Perhaps most importantly, they offer free, valuable insights or advice.
According to Rowley, The Modern Sales Professional doesnt sell; she serves. She doesnt
sell; she helps. She doesnt sell; she facilitates a buying process. Doing so gets a buyers
attention and quickly dispels the notion that the rep is all about making a quick sale.
In fact, this advisory approach boosts the likelihood that prospects will share their contact
information or agree to a demo, for example. As Colleen Stanley, founder and president of
SalesLeadership, Inc., says, Most people view salespeople as self-centered, Lone-Ranger
types. The best salespeople I know are generous. Generous people enjoy the law of reciprocity. When you give, you get. Barbara Giamanco, president of Social Centered Selling
and co-author of The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media, agrees. the focus is
not on your company or what you sell, it is in offering something that is educational. Giving
is more important than getting. Giving first leads to more opportunities over time.
TIP: Before reaching out to someone on LinkedIn with a cold connect, take a few minutes
to discover similarities or recent developments, such as promotions or job changes. A little
can go a long way here and in the long run youll be way more productive making a few
smart connections than hundreds of meaningless ones.
Key takeaways
Give your sales team social insights on their leads, contacts, and accounts.
Provide reps with content and tools that makes it easy for them to be productive on
social.
Make social connections on LinkedIn and Twitter a key part of the process workflow for
top accounts.
TIP: To make sure sales reps effectively engage in social selling, train them on the tools and
processes and help them build and maintain strong social media presences.
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Funnelholic and Social Selling expert Craig Rosenberg uses this technique. He
says, On LinkedIn the prospect clicks on YOU. You arent nameless sales guy x
calling me againthey looked at your profile. Its a prime opportunity to talk to
potential buyers. Isnt that better than checking in? They see your face, glance
at your headline and summaryIt is especially effective with people you have
already connected with. (Think lead nurturing).
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10
Tell a story
16
Tell a story
Whether called thought leadership or something else, sales reps dont have the time to
create this content. In fact, a 2014 Sirius Decisions study revealed that 65% of companies
sales reps spend too many hours on non-selling activities, including digging up resources
and tailoring presentation materials.2 Thats hardly the best use of their time.
The answer is for sales and marketing to work together closely to make sure the content
their organization produces will truly hit the mark. Then sales needs to pay attention to
how and when that content is consumed. Smart reps know that content assets map to the
buyers cycle and can pinpoint when a prospect is ready to talk. That means they can strike
while the iron is hot.
Just rememberonce reps are talking to prospective buyers, they need to carry on the
conversation thats already been triggered by the companys content. Thats one more
reason its important for marketing and sales to be in lockstep.
TIP: Get agreement from marketing that theyll keep sales informed of every new content
asset: the target audience and buying stage, key message, where the asset can be found, and
talking points when sales reps are following up with prospects or customers.
Key takeaways
Tell stories that give prospective buyers an urgent reason to depart from the status quo.
Arm sales reps with content that fuels interactions.
Prepare sales pros to continue the conversation started by the companys content.
The Corporate Executive Board Company, From Promotion to Emotion: Connecting B2B Customers to Brands, 2013
http://www.savogroup.com/blog/sales-productivity-efficiency/
17
InsideView, http://learnmore.insideview.com/Microsoft.html
18
Harvard Business Review Blog Network, Why Individuals No Longer Rule on Sales Teams by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon and
Nicholas Toman, January 9, 2014
http://www.millerheiman.com/knowledge_center/knowledge_center_articles/sales_performance_research/2014-miller-heiman-sales-bestpractices-study-exec/
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Key takeaways
Make it easy for sales to tap into social insights and other data about prospective buyers.
Facilitate internal collaboration.
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All of this takes time, can lead to distractions, and still often leaves reps short on information.
Once sales finds the opportunity to connect, they need to get as educated as they canas
quickly as possibleto identify a way to provide immediate value.
As Colleen Francis, founder and president of Engage Selling Solutions explains, The CRM
system must be the hub for all sales templates, proposals, marketing materials and coaching
dashboards. If everything sellers need is in one place, they will use the tool completely.
When CRM is being utilized to its fullest extent, the team will be more productive and the
organization will have a more predictable sales forecast.
The good news is that CRM technology has evolved to help sales reps conduct research
internally and externally, collaborate with colleagues, make connections on social networks,
and focus on the buyer. The result is a modern selling experience that facilitates interactions
and sales.
23
Key takeaways
Consider the way the sales team prefers to work when selecting tools to support them.
Use technology to automate as many processes as possible.
Provide tools that streamline the sales process from beginning to end.
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25
Insights from
the experts.
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Meagan Eisenberg
Why is sales productivity a key issue today?
Sales productivity is a critical measurement for the success of
any sales and marketing organization. When you increase sales
productivity you reduce your costs of sales and increase your speed
to revenue. Sales resources are expensive and hit the bottom
line, and for SaaS companies, a lower cost of sales and marketing
to revenue nets higher shareholder value. Sales enablement
should be a joint responsibility between sales and marketing to
improve sales productivity. From onboarding and continued sales
training to compensation, measurement, and sales tools all
areas need continual focus and ongoing enhancement. According
to SiriusDecisions, 52% of lost sales are due to a failure in sales
enablement.
27
Social selling and social insights are definitely part of the sales
arsenal and should be adopted if not already by savvy sales
reps. We train our reps regularly at DocuSign on the latest social
selling techniques within LinkedIn and Twitter. And DocuSign uses
LinkedIn within CRM. Peer-to-peer introductions and referrals
are still the fastest way to convert a buyer into a customer, as
well as the number one trusted source for many buyers. And by
monitoring a buyers activities and interests on social sites, such as
Twitter, we can better form not only a relationship with the buyer,
but also a solution that matches their needs and in turn convert to
a sale faster.
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Christina Dieckmeyer
Why is sales productivity a key issue today?
To have the most productive sales force, sales leaders must have
an effective strategy in place. The use of a sales strategy means
the leadership team allocates resources efficiently, and can get the
most production from his/her sales force. The objectives of a sales
strategy should be:
Align the sales strategy with buyer needs
Align the sales strategy with the corporate strategy
Alight the sales strategy with product/solution strategy
Capture the available market by outselling the competition
It is key to have an operating plan in place to ensure a productive
sales force.
Process Maps. Buying Process Maps are sales tools that map the
decision making process used to purchase a product, service or
solution. This provides the sales team a blueprint so they can get
into deals early enough to win them. The use of one means that the
buyer and seller are completely aligned resulting in the elimination
of blown opportunities.
According to SBIs research, there are several key benefits to Buying
Process Maps.
42% longer buying cyclewith a Buying Process Map in place,
sellers are more than twice as likely to get engaged with a buyer
early enough to help define the problem.
113% greater chance to engage with a buyer prior to the
Options phase. The Options phase of the buying process is when
the buyer has already defined the problem, and is determining
what options can solve this particular problem.
47% fewer competitors involved in each deal
37% higher win rates
26% higher average deal size
Your internal sales process and how you have defined your
customers buying cycle should be aligned for the greatest chance
of success.
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Brian Kelly
Provide top three pieces of advice you can share
with aspiring sales leaders.
1) Know your buyer. Sounds like motherhood and apple pie
and sales 101, but I am constantly running into organizations
that dont have a solid understanding of their buyers. What are
their pains and priorities, how do they measure success, what is
their modern buying process? How can you respectfully sell, or
bring value to the table if you dont understand what makes your
buyers tick and how you can move the needle for them and their
organization? By understanding your buyer and their buying
process across these dimensions, your reps can more effectively
prioritize accounts and engage with timely, value-based,
compelling messages.
2) Give your team the knowledge advantage. Intelligence about
your prospects and customers is imperative to effective selling.
It enables reps to be relevant and timely with their outreaches,
prioritize accounts, and increase probabilities to close/win deals.
Dont make reps spend half their time doing account research
and tracking. Their time is better spent selling, but selling smart.
Give them a tool that monitors and alerts them of buying signals
and other account activities that allow them to prioritize accounts
and engage with timely, relevant messages. Prospects are 32%
more likely to reply to relevant messages, but sales reps spend as
much as 42% of their time doing research. Tools like InsideView
automate the delivery of account intelligence.
3) Get aligned with marketing. Marketing is your friend more
than ever. Marketing has the reach and ability to significantly
impact close rates. Most marketers are now measured on
revenue (or certainly should be), meaning they have to deliver
leads that convert to revenue. And marketing programs are
more focused than ever on not just top-of-funnel leads but on
programs that bring in leads mid-funnel and nurture all the way
to close. Marketing programs should be completely aligned
with your sales process. They should nurture and acquire leads
with the same persona messaging being delivered by your reps.
The result is a consistent lead-to-revenue process that more
effectively moves deals to close. A key way to this alignment
is the flow of lead information from marketing to sales. The
lead should hit sales in a complete and accurate form. And by
complete I mean not just contact name and contact info, but
all the news and social buzz associated with the account. Right
there, ready to use. The key being, the master customer and
contact data needs to come from a single source, needs to be
highly accurate, and needs to include insights and connections
for true sales-ready leads. The result: Sales loves marketing for
killer leads, and marketing loves sales because they convert the
leads to revenue.
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Colleen Francis
process. Today, with buyers now controlling the majority of the front
end of the sales process, and, with over 57% of buying decisions
being made before a seller is contacted, sellers must learn to facilitate a buying processnot conduct a sales processand adapt
their sales process to be aligned with the way their buyers are
buying. The sales funnel remains a critical tool for sellers to use in
managing their business but it must be adapted to reflect the new
processes buyers are using to buy.
because buyers want solid proof that businesses like them are using
the products successfully. Buyers care little for why you think you
can help them but they care deeply about what others have said
about your help. The smartest sellers use a combination of case
studies, examples and testimonials in audio, video, and text format
to prove to their prospects that they have a long history of success.
Metaphors are critical because they make the abstract clear, create
a sense of familiarity, trigger emotions, draw attention, and motivate action. As people buy emotionally and justify logically, the right
metaphor can be the difference between winning and losing a sale.
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How important is content and thought leadership in the sales process and why? Critical. Today, no
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Julie Hansen
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Jesse Hopps
Why is sales productivity a key issue today?
Helping is the new selling. Unfortunately, most companies are not
yet at the point of recognizing they need to give their sales teams
permission and tools to spend time enabling prospects. Too often
sales teams are pressured to make the next sale, maximize margin
on each deal, and get their funnels to be 4x their quota. That drives
behavior that is not conducive to helping and only reinforces the
selling we have all come to loath.
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Barbara Giamanco
Why is sales productivity a key issue today?
Buyers no longer enter the top of the funnel as a lead that is scored
by marketing and passed over to sales who then sets a meeting,
presents, proposes, and closes business. Estimates vary, but we
know that buyers begin the sales process without sellers roughly
70% of the time. And leads can come from anywhere: LinkedIn,
Twitter, Facebook, a blog, a referral, marketing event or an email
campaign.
The implication is that sales and marketing must first accept that
buyer behavior has changed. Traditional sales and marketing
processes are not as effective as they once were because the
buyers journey looks much different than it did 5 or 10 years ago.
As a result of the massive disruption that the internet and social
media brought with it, sales and marketing must work together.
Each camp has to think differently about their roles. Marketers need
to think more like sellers, and sellers need to learn to become more
like marketers.
36
The dashboard must also include access to social data from places
like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Salespeople need to be
able to quickly walk in the digital footprint of their prospects and
customers. Who are people connecting with, what groups are they
joining, what do they say on Twitter, who do they follow, what do
they share about themselves, what do they care about? We dont
sell B2B or B2C, we sell P2Pperson to person.
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Kendra Lee
Why is sales productivity a key issue today?
In a nutshell, the more your sales team is able to focus on the right
activities, the faster they will identify more qualified opportunities
and move them through the pipeline to close. Activities doesnt
just mean actions. It means doing the actions the right way. For
example, prospecting doesnt just mean cold calling. It means
calling within a defined micro-segment at the appropriate level
with a targeted message and an effective follow-up strategy. Those
prospecting actions will garner better qualified opportunities.
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Jill Konrath
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James Oldroyd
Why is sales productivity a key issue today?
The answer to all these questions is science. What do I mean by
science? I think the most interesting trend in sales currently is the
increase in the processes and technologies that empower sales
agents. Sales has often been seen as an art with sales agents
having intuition. This is rapidly changing. Sales is becoming
a science. With a full-scale scientific discovery process backing
the learning. Nearly every sales activity can be measured and
optimized. Productivity is a key issue because it can finally be
measured and managed. You want to send a better email? There
are tools to help you. You want to measure your response to the
email? There are tools to help you. Every step, when to respond,
how to respond, how to follow-up, how to build a relationship etc.
can be measured and optimized. Of course this process has been
ongoing and dramatically facilitated by companies like Microsoft
Dynamics CRM and Salesforce that standardizes the process.
These efforts are critical because once standardization begins,
measurement becomes easy.
I have been working with many companies to find the right tools,
tools that will accelerate their growth, but am a strong advocate
that using any tool is better than using no tool. Much of what the
smart manager at the SME I discussed earlier used was basic
tracking functions he built in Excel. Of course, he will likely refine
these analyses with more sophisticated tools over time, but just his
efforts to measure and analyze were dramatically increasing his
firms sales. He was using science, and even rudimentary science is
better than advanced intuition.
41
Ryan Blakely
42
Elinor Stutz
43
Lori Richardson
44
Colleen Stanley
45
Craig Rosenberg
Why is sales productivity a key issue today?
In the old days, we would give a sales rep a phone book and some
product brochures and tell them to go sell something. If they
didnt work out, we went and hired more. That has changed and
technology is a big factor. With technology we know more than we
did before about what a sales rep is actually doing and can follow
their activity. Also, technology provides opportunities to make
reps more productive than ever before. Technology solves many
inefficiencies in day-to-day selling. DocuSign is a great example.
They have taken a painful part of the sales process and made it
easier and quicker. With e-signatures, sales reps dont have to use
fax machines and have visibility as to where their contracts are in
the signing process. Now making reps more productive is a key
factor in your ability to compete.
sales strategy and process decisions on what your buyers want. For
example, there has been an exponential rise in inside sales versus
direct. The economics of an inside sales person are compelling
compared to the expense of a field rep. However, making the
decision to move to inside sales should not be based on the costs
to your business but on how your buyer chooses to interact with
vendors. Some buyers want face-to-face sales and some solutions
cant be sold over the phone.
Its harder than ever to move a buyer forward. We know that buyers
prefer to do research on their own from credible sources. That
doesnt change when they engage with sales. They still want the
content so they can make the decision themselves. Sales has to be
able to deliver that content to their prospects. They build trust and
more importantly, they give the buyer what they want, when they
want it.
46
define the path buyers must traverse from idea to solution choice,
from determining how to fix the problem internally to deciding on
an external solution and managing the change, from one person to
the voices of all who will touch the solution (Buying Decision Team).
This process has always superseded the sales funnel but sales limits
interactions to solution placement activities. That has created the
transactional sale, as buyers cant count on us to do more than
provide solutions.
The implications have existed within sales for decades: we spend
too much resource coming in with what buyers need last. Buyers
dont need our solution, they need to solve a business problem.
They only make a purchase as a last resort and only when they
get the buy-in to adopt something new without disrupting their
status quo.
We have been failing for decades, and calling our 7% close rate
success. Buying Facilitation works in tandem with the sales model
to facilitate the first 9 change management steps buyers absolutely
must address before they decide to purchase an outside solution.
Using Buying Facilitation its possible to close 40% from first
prospecting call. So top funnel, Buying Facilitation; bottom funnel,
sales. They work in tandem.
Its like trying to push your yummy dessert onto a dinner party that
hasnt begun to eat: regardless of how good the dessert is, its the
last thing the people need: not everyone will want it, folks dont
know if they want dessert until theyre finished with the appetizer
and main course, some folks may not eat sugar, some folks will
want dessert first. Offering a great dessert is not good enough.
have already assembled their Buying Decision Team, or gotten buyin for any necessary change that a new solution would require.
Weve never asked ourselves why buyers with an obvious need
arent buying. Where do they go? Why do we assume a prospect
is someone with a need, someone who SHOULD buy rather than
someone who WILL buy? Just because a buyer has a need for our
solution does not mean their internal systems can ever get ready
for the change necessary when a new solution enters.
Having more information about needs or contacts does not
facilitate the change they must go through, although we can use
any nameeven of a gatekeeperto help them assemble all
voices that must be included in a purchase. Id like information
about the steps they have taken toward change and stakeholder
buy-in; about regular vendors and current technology; about how
the stakeholders make decisions together; about failures theyve
had in fixing their business problem to date. All that data will help
me help them address their change issues.
48
Jill Rowley
49
Reach out to
learn more.
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
Talk to a Microsoft representative
(United States and Canada).
Availability and hours of operation:
MondayFriday, 8:00 A.M.5:30 P.M.
Central Time (UTC-6) in the United
States and Canada.
1-888-477-7989